Nicknamed " Shorty" by Supreme Court legend Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan stands at just 5-foot-3. Kagan, nominated to be only the fourth woman in history to sit on the Court, was the first-ever female solicitor general. And with that job, she broke with tradition in another wayâby declining to wear the traditional morning coat with tails worn by all her male predecessors. The dated outfit would have made Kagan look "a bit like a penguin in the long-tailed coat," NPR's Nina Totenberg said.
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On her first day as a Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg got a rave review from the Associated Press. "Ginsberg, barely more than 5 feet tall, might have been swallowed up in her tall, black leather chair, but she sat forward, ramrod straight, fixing a steady gaze on the lawyers who came before the court." She had to sit on a cushion to reach the microphone during her confirmation hearings.
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"He used to say he's a 5-foot-6-inch Jew," said former New York Mayor Ed Koch of current New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2008. "And now he says he is 5-foot-7âthough he continues to be Jewish." It was offered as a sign that Bloomberg would mount a centrist third-party candidacy for the presidency. Alas, it was not to be. Perhaps Bloomberg should have stuck to the white lie on his driver's license, which lists him as 5-foot-10.
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At 4-foot-11, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California is one of the shortest members of Congress. In her campaign for her seat in 1990, the San Diego Union Tribune said, "What she lacks in height she makes up for with a raspy voice that sounds like it's coming from a boombox even when she's not using a microphone." At the time, she urged voters to choose her because the equally tiny Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) was "really looking forward to working with someone she can look in the eye."
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When Barbara Walters named Nancy Pelosi the Most Fascinating Person of 2006 she asked "Here you are, this petite, feminine woman. To be Speaker of the House, do you have to be tough as nails?" Madame Speaker responded: "Well, I, as I said, during, before winning, I said to my colleagues, 'You have to eat nails for breakfast, don a full suit of armor, and go into battle every day.'"
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The vertically challenged Scalia comes in around 5-foot-7, just a shade under his Supreme Court colleague Clarence Thomas, who's 5-foot-8. But at 74, the Trenton-born father of nine still seems to tower over some of his colleagues, leading Maureen Dowd to call him "Archie Bunker in a high-backed chair.
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Economic whiz Robert Reich has a sense of humor about his 4-foot-10 inch physique, the result of the genetic disease multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, once even appearing in a skit with super-tall late-night host Conan O'Brien. An old friend of the Clintons and the former Secretary of Labor, he was appointed as an economic adviser on Obama's transition team in the fall of 2008.
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Nicknamed "Rahmbo," the president's chief of staff may be short in statureâand missing half his middle fingerâbut that's never stopped him from getting the job done, whether as a prodigious ballet student as a child or engineering the Democratic takeover of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.
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At around 5-foot-5, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner always looks petite at the podium with the president, vice president and his deputy Peter Orszag. But he's certainly held his own despite withering criticism over the course of the financial crisis. A protégé of Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, Geithner was once called a "very unusually talented young man" by his predecessor Hank Paulson.
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Janet Napolitano, the tiny but tough Secretary of Homeland Security, is an enthusiastic basketball fan. Raised in Pittsburgh, Napolitano went on to be the third female governor of Arizona before joining the Obama administration. She may be considerably shorter than the president, but she's an avid hiker, having climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas.
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Media has always been more hospitable than elected office for the politically minded. Three of television news' biggest stars clock in at or below the national average height of 5-foot-10 for men and 5-foot-4 for women. Of these, only George Stephanopoulos has to sit next to a former college basketball starâRobin Robertsâevery morning. At least the camera adds inches as well as pounds.
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